Plural Strategy | Days of Giving 2023

Each year, Plural Strategy organises Days of Giving; an opportunity for our people to get meaningfully involved within their local community. In 2023:

Our London team went to volunteer at Stepney City Farm, a small working farm in the heart of East London
Our New York team ventured into St Nicholas Park

Plural Strategy’s London team volunteer at Stepney City Farm

Freddie Gate and Molly Archer, two Analysts who took part, give their thoughts on the day:

What did your morning involve?

We started with a tour to get acquainted with the farm and an explanation of all the fruit and vegetables grown there. We also met the animals that live on the farm, which included geese, goats, sheep, pigs and donkeys. After this, we were divided into groups and given tasks for the day. Some of us swept up the communal areas and cleared away any rubbish and debris that had been left by visitors. Others removed weeds from the paths and flower beds.

A group also shovelled hay and other waste onto the compost heap to support the farm’s sustainability efforts. By lunchtime, we’d all built up a big appetite, so we ate in the farm’s cafe, where all the ingredients were sourced from the farm itself or the local area. At the end of the day, we had the opportunity to go into the pen with the pigs and even feed one of them, which weighed 240kg! We finished the day at the pub, and after a day of working in the sun, our pints felt very well-earned.

What made you want to be involved in the volunteering day?

The farm runs a lot of great tours and workshops for schools, young and vulnerable people, and community groups, which aim to promote education and well-being among their visitors. It was fantastic to play a small role in supporting these activities. I think at a time when most of us are quite disconnected from the sources of our food, it was also especially nice to participate in a sustainable operation that provides high-quality, ethical produce for its local area. It was great to enrich our understanding of how our food is produced and, of course, also lovely spending a day in the sunshine and fresh air, doing work completely different from our normal daily tasks.

Overall, would you recommend the experience?

We both really enjoyed the experience and thought it was a great opportunity to bond with our colleagues outside of the office environment. In fact, I think the day really reminded us how lucky we are to have colleagues that we get on with so well. Everyone worked well together as a team, and we all had a lot of fun too. We’d definitely both do it again and are looking forward to the next Plural Day of Giving!

New York interns volunteer at St Nicholas Park

Cole McQuinn, who is doing a summer consulting internship, describes the activity and the impact it had on local biodiversity:

What did your day involve?

After our 9am company catch-up, our office took the train up to Harlem to volunteer with Partnership for Parks at St. Nicholas Park. The foundation provided us with shovels and other tools, and we got to work pulling weeds, removing invasive plants, and picking up trash. Three of us interns dug up Japanese Knotweed, a particularly problematic invasive species in New York parks. It had deep roots and took the whole group to pull! As we worked diligently, the park volunteer staff taught us about the impact of plants on the ecosystem. We realised that our seemingly small task played a vital role in preserving the park’s biodiversity. While it was a little unfortunate that it was raining, it was still a great day to be outdoors in the park.

What made you want to be involved in the volunteering day?

Social impact work, whether through pro-bono projects or volunteer days, is a very important part of being at Plural. I have done various outdoor volunteer projects in the past, and I was excited to be able to give back to my community with the rest of the New York office. I love my local park and go almost every day after work, so it was great to be able to help support those rare urban greenspaces for everyone.

As an intern cohort, this volunteer trip was also an excellent team-building activity, and gave us a chance to get to know the full-time staff outside of our typical office environment.